For 15 months between February 1692 and May 1693, the American town of Salem, Massachusetts was ripped apart by accusations of witchcraft that spread like wildfire. At the end of this harrowing period some 20 innocent people had been killed, suspected of witchcraft. However, the legacy of those terrible events served as a cautionary warning of the violent excesses of witchcraft trials. Since that time, the term ‘witch hunt’ has been used as a political metaphor for any unjust harassing of innocent people or groups. But what if the events at Salem had never occurred? Would witch trials have continued throughout America?
What was the situation in Salem directly prior to the witch trials?
The panic that became the Salem witch trials began in a time of growing uncertainty: loss of Massachusetts’ charter, insecurity over how much self-rule a new charter would allow, the threat of smallpox, continuing frontier raids by French Canadians and their Wabanaki allies, privateers and pirates at sea, and a declining economy.
Why did the trials begin?
Early in 1692, the nine-year-old daughter and 11-year-old niece of Rev Samuel Parris began acting strangely. Their painful symptoms baffled physicians until one of them suggested the children might be under an evil spell. Matters worsened after a neighbour taught a British anti-magic charm to John and Tituba Indian, Parris’s enslaved couple. But now the
